A nine-person jury in Mandan, North Dakota, ordered environment campaign group Greenpeace to pay over $660 million in damages to a Texas-based oil company, Energy Transfer, CNBC Newsreported. In what seems to be a considerable legal blow for Greenpeace, it was found liable over its efforts to prevent the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline about a decade ago. The verdict, which was reached after about two days of deliberations, in favor of the pipeline’s developers may run Greenpeace into bankruptcy. “This case should alarm everyone, no matter their political inclinations,” Greenpeace U.S. interim executive director Sushma Raman wrote in a statement published Wednesday. “It’s part of a renewed push by corporations to weaponize our courts to silence dissent. We should all be concerned about the future of the First Amendment, and lawsuits like this aimed at destroying our rights to peaceful protest and free speech,” Raman noted. Energy Transfer told CNBC that the outcome is a “win” for Americans who can differentiate between free speech and breaking the law. “We are very pleased that Greenpeace has been held accountable for their actions against us, but this win is also for the people of Mandan and throughout North Dakota who had to live through the daily harassment and disruptions caused by the protesters who were funded and trained by Greenpeace,” the company statement read.
